No Splitters

Before the election I was saying that one interesting thing to watch, especially if Trump lost as most of the polls forecast, is whether we’d see a return to split-ticket voting of the kind we used to see in the 1970s and 1980s. Several Republican Senate candidates distanced themselves from Trump with mixed results (like Toomey in PA and Ayotte in NH), while some House candidates in swingier districts campaigned on being a check on Madam President Hillary. Some GOP Senate candidates, such as Rubio, Toomey and Ron Johnson, did run ahead of Trump (which is some evidence that a different GOP nominee would also have beaten Hillary), but others ran behind him.

But rather than see a return of split-ticket voting, this election was the first one since direct election of senators started 100 years ago that there were no split-ticket results:

Keep in mind as we head to the 2018 mid-term election that Democrats will be defending 10 Senate seats in states Trump won.